Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Nova's Adventures in the Archeology Guild - Chapter 2

This story contains spoilers for the Lost Spires mod.

This story has been edited to change the name Luna to Nova and change she/her pronouns to he/him.

Nova's Adventures In The Archaeology Guild - Chapter 2

After resting for the night, Nova headed back to the Archeology Guild to talk to Teave. Upon showing him the crystal fragment, he became very excited, but was unhappy with the rock surrounding the brilliant blue shard. To remedy this, Teave sent Nova off to see Tumyr, another member of the guild who was studying a large fossil not too far away. Apparently, Tumyr had discovered a dissolving agent that would remove the outer rock without damaging the inner crystal matrix. So Nova headed out to see Tumyr, and hopefully get a good look at his fossil, as that wasn't something one sees every day. Tumyr had Nova gather five samples of Green Stain Cup Caps to mix with the slime from a strange cocoon he had discovered to create a new batch of the dissolving agent, and sent him on his way.




When Nova returned to the guildhall, Teave took the dissolving agent from him and told him that the guild master wanted to see him. So, with his curiosity peaked, Nova headed to the library to meet with the guild master, Kal Rythor. Rythor sent him on yet another errand, this time to a mine, literally in the middle of nowhere, to ask the miners to dig a tunnel. Apparently on his latest expedition, they had found another spire but were unable to get inside, and so Rythor wanted the miners in nearby Bloodvein mine to tunnel into the spire from within the mine. Nova set off and reached the mine just as the sun was setting.



This seemed a simple enough task, but when Nova entered the mine, he found all the miners in a state of panic. Speaking with the foreman, he learned that they had apparently tunneled into a vampire's lair, and two of their men had been taken captive. Nova volunteered to go in after the two men, which was a good thing, as the foreman then informed him that he wouldn't be digging any tunnels for anyone until the vampires were dealt with.

Nova cast a night-eye spell and delved deeper into the mine, heading for the entrance to the vampire's lair. Only one vampire was within the mine, and Nova quickly dispatched it and entered the ancient lair, only to find the two miners sadly strung up and quite dead. Upon reaching the inner part of the lair, Nova was shocked to find huge tanks of human blood waiting to feed the vampires living there. A bit shaken, he finished off the last of the vampires and headed back to the foreman, who then agreed to dig the tunnel. With this agreement forged, he headed back to the guildhall once again.


Monday, May 25, 2015

Nova's Adventures In The Archeology Guild - Chapter 1

This story contains spoilers for the Lost Spires mod.

This story has been edited to change the name Luna to Nova and change she/her pronouns to he/him.

Nova's Adventures In The Archeology Guild - Chapter 1

After hearing a rumor while staying at the Merchant's Inn, Nova found himself standing outside of the old, dilapidated castle which was the headquarters for the Archeology Guild in Cyrodiil. The castle definitely looked to have seen better days, but didn't seem in danger of falling on his head, so Nova walked to the door and headed inside.


Upon entering, he stood looking around for a moment before hearing someone clear their throat nearby. Looking for the origin of the sound, Nova saw a smiling Argonian man in a red robe looking at him with curiosity. He approached the man and asked if the guild was hiring new members. After much discussion about his skills and (lack of) experience in archeology, the man, who had introduced himself as Teave, accepted Nova as a temporary member of the Archeology Guild and invited him to look around the guild hall and become acquainted with the other members.




After having a look around and chatting with the his new colleagues, Nova returned to Teave and asked if he had any work that needed done. He did in fact, and sent him off to explore a new archeological site the guild had recently discovered, which they were simply calling "The Spire". The guild desperately wanted to look into it further, but no one in the guild had enough combat experience to feel comfortable delving too deeply inside.

Upon arrival at the spire, Nova instantly saw that the guild members had been right in stating that the structure was unlike any other they or he had ever seen before. After looking around the base of the strange building, he decided to venture inside.


The interior of the spire was filled with oddly glowing blue crystals, and Nova wondered briefly about their alchemical properties before continuing further inside. At the end of the tunnel system, he found a crystal shard that was mostly encased in a dark rock, but still shone brightly where it was exposed. He slipped it into his bag and headed back to the guild hall.


Monday, May 11, 2015

West Weald Cottage

My Current Project:


While Luna's house is usually really modern and completely lore-breaking, I don't usually like that for anyone but Luna. I wanted a more lore-friendly cottage for my other characters. 

West Weald Cottage is an old idea. I had a different cottage here for about 2 years before I completely scrapped it to start over. It just took me a long time to actually start over. Nothing is the same this time except for the location, which is near Bleak Falls Cave.

Exterior:

There is a small vegetable patch outside with a scarecrow watching over it, and a pretty sitting area with a window box full of flowers and a bird feeder. The birds can be seen hanging around the porch. The cute door bell is retextured Stroti's Mushroom House.

Exterior Details



Interior:

The inside is furnished in mostly middle class furniture, and with various resources that fit nicely. The dresser has a working alchemy station on top, and the shelf on the right wall has some pets. (Fish and bugs.) The kitchen will be somewhat functional once I get around to scripting it (coffee etc....). There is a bathing area behind the shutters. The table is set for two, as the house is only set up for my character and one companion.

Interior





Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Remodeling Luna's House.....Again

I've spent the last couple sleepless nights working on remodeling and redecorating Luna's house again. I've made it modern again and changed the color scheme of two rooms. Her bedroom is awesome now.

Luna Resting After Moving All That Furniture:


The kitchen has been completely redone, and I removed the foyer entirely. I still have an empty corner that I'm not sure how to fill up yet. The microwave and fridge are containers with custom open/close sounds. The toaster works and is animated through scripting. The soup shows up while cooking and a boiling sound plays. Pancakes and bacon & eggs appear in the pan along with a sizzling sound effect. Eventually there will be running water in the sink, but I'm lazy. I love the sound that plays when the toast pops up. When something finishes cooking on the stove, a timer bell chimes to let me know. I want to add baking that will appear in the oven while it cooks, but again: lazy.

I still need to put some pictures and magnets on the fridge:


Forgot the knob on the toaster, but it's looking good:


Pretty fireplace:


Dining area with sunflower art:


The bedroom has my favorite black plaid wallpaper again with red accents. I went pillow crazy, so it's very comfy in there. The pictures on the dresser are my mom and one of my favorite youtubers (Grav3yardgirl) as Oblivion characters. The posters are held up with "pushpins" in the corners. It's actually just a coin made static and bright yellow (and shrunk....), but I think it looks like a pushpin. Yes, that is a Kingdom Hearts poster. Luna's house doesn't know the meaning of lore-friendly. She has a bat plushy next to the bed. :P

Love seat with elephant plushy:


The cat corner:


Luna's bed, also known as Cyrodiilic Pillow Headquarters:
(I don't know what to put on those 2 shelves)


Dresser complete with narwhal poster:


The only change to the bathroom is that it now has really pretty tile flooring.

Pretty tiles:


Luna checking out her new surroundings, and showing off her new clothes:




Monday, May 4, 2015

Femme Androgyne Body WIP

I'm working on a new (well, edited) upper body mesh for HGEC. It's completely flat-chested, as in no breasts at all. The waist line is still feminine and it corresponds to the female lower body. It isn't meant to be childlike, but instead it's meant to be androgynous. A somewhat masculine upper body, with feminine curves and lower body parts for genderqueer characters. I realize this isn't something most people would want, as most people seem to want boobs bigger than their heads, but I like it.

I've got the shape done, but there is a weird reflection around the nipples in bright lighting, and that looks like crap. I don't know how to fix that, but I'm working on it. If anyone reading this knows how, please let me know.



Nipple Reflection:



Luna's Ears and Custom Earrings

I spent all night working on earrings for Luna, and I'm really happy with them, so I wanted to share. There are 4 sets total: 2 earring variations and a version of each with glasses. The earrings are skulls, so if you don't like skulls, turn back now lol. :) I've included the ears that Luna always uses, because the second pair of earrings is shaped especially for that ear and won't fit other ears properly. The first pair should fit relatively well with any ears based off the vanilla imperial ear, but no promises. The first pair of earrings are dangling skulls on both ears, and the second pair is a skull on one side and 3 stud earrings on the other. You'll have to add them to the game yourself. I didn't include an .esp file. In my game, I just stuck them in "Luna's Goody Box" which is were I shove random clothing items I make. I hope you like them.





Credits:

Amnes for the ears

Kafeid Apachii for the stud piercings

Apachii for the skull

SydneyB and Xiamara for the hoops

I don't know where the skull texture originally came from, but I got it from Reaper9111's Necromancer Tower mod

Gucchi Ahiru and Hickory for the glasses